Sublime Mediahttps://sublimemedia.co.za
Digital MediaMon, 31 Dec 2018 23:06:34 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.12When to Use Old Codehttps://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/when-to-use-old-code/
https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/when-to-use-old-code/#respondMon, 31 Dec 2018 23:06:34 +0000https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/when-to-use-old-code/Read More]]> COBOL is a programming language that was originally designed in 1959, an era that many people might think of as being “before computers”. That’s not true, of course; they just didn’t have computers at home. The language is still being used by some businesses on giant mainframe computers. It’s a bit like Linux: people interact with it every day, they just don’t know it.

The point here is simple: the world more or less runs on old code, and that’s not always a bad thing. We, as designers and front end developers, could learn a thing or two.

We generally think of older code as being slower and less secure. This actually varies greatly depending on the system in question. Hey, how many script kiddies do you know that could hack into anything running on COBOL, when they might not even know what it is? Sometimes old code is just more dependable.

All that work to get rounded corners into the spec, and we started using Metro-inspired flat design practically the next day

Now on the Front End, this is an issue of compatibility. IT departments around the world are doing a better job of updating their software, and most individuals use browsers that update themselves. Even so, there are some use cases when you can’t afford to let any potential user fall through the cracks. There will be times when certain bits of CSS3 just aren’t available to you, when you might have to go back to a float-based layout, or even—God forbid—back to XHTML. Pushing the envelope is fun, but there will be times when old code is just plain better better than a polyfill.

Hey, it’s not like we use rounded corners nearly as often as we used to, anyway. All that work to get rounded corners into the spec, and we started using Metro-inspired flat design practically the next day.

Government

Governments should ideally be using the latest, greatest, and most secure back end code, but they don’t. I mean, governments are known for being out of touch, and out of date. It’s sort of what they do. While this approach is often terrible for policy and backend code, it’s ironically kind of a boon to compatibility on the front end.

Anyone working in the government sector has a moral responsibility to make sure everything they make is backwards compatible enough for every single one of their constituents to access it. This includes people with aging family computers, even people whose only contact with the Internet happens in libraries, people who only have a smartphone, or what-have-you.

I mean, it’s government. When people cannot access the services a government provides, then government may as well not exist. In a case like this, a site that can be used on old browsers is literally a matter of public welfare.

Side Note: Internal Web Apps in Government and Publicly-funded Services

Have you ever seen a library’s online catalog that wasn’t a little ancient? Publicly-funded services like libraries wish they got the IT budgets that even stingy corporations are willing to front. Working on ten-year-old (or older) hardware is not at all uncommon. This happens in constituencies all over first world countries and the developing world alike, in small towns and big fancy states.

Don’t even get me started on federal agencies worldwide. If the department doesn’t generate massive revenue or bundles of good PR, chances are that they’ll get stiffed in the budget meetings. When it comes right down to it, politics affects UX. If you’re making something for internal use by a public service or governmental department, ask them what hardware they’re using. Ask to see their worst and oldest machines, because your website/app has to work on them.

Health Services

Whether it’s a site for a health insurance provider, a hospital’s internal management application, or just an app that helps you get to a health provider faster, backwards compatibility is an imperative. While doctors might get paid plenty, that’s not necessarily a guarantee for the IT departments, and people of every economic class get sick at some point.

It’s just that, not to put too fine a point on it, any hiccup in these systems in this context could literally kill people. It might be a rare thing, but what developer or designer wants even one death on their conscience? It puts a whole new kind of pressure on cross-browser layout testing.

Ecommerce and Other Generally Massive Sites

Thankfully, a site that doesn’t load for everyone in the wonderful world of ecommerce isn’t going to kill people… probably. All you have to lose is money. Of course, no one likes that.

Now small sites in general, and niche or luxury-focused ecommerce sites can get away with targeting a smaller number of browsers to maintain compatibility with. Any design researcher worth their salt will figure out what browsers their users prefer, and go with that.

The bigger your audience, though, the larger the number of people who use “non-standard” browsers. It’s just kind of how that goes. When the numbers get bigger like that, even if it’s only a few percentage points, it becomes less forgivable to ignore those users. This is especially true for publicly traded companies. Shareholders may not respond well to excuses like, “But who cares about Edge?”

Anywhere People Don’t Upgrade Their Hardware Often

Governments, public services, and hospitals aren’t the only places that get stuck with old hardware and software. It happens in companies all around the world. Administrators everywhere really seem to like their standardized systems, even when those systems might be a little out of date.

Companies big and small can end up feeling very afraid of change. In the big ones especially, one single day of having their systems out of commission represents a loss that, even if it would be a justified short-term sacrifice, feels too risky. Old hardware just comes with the territory.

You will, as always, have to assess each job as it comes. Some days you’ll be living in the future, and on others, well… 2009 was a simpler time. Enjoy the nostalgia.

]]>https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/when-to-use-old-code/feed/07 Ways to Utilize User-Generated Content in 2019https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/7-ways-to-utilize-user-generated-content-in-2019/
https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/7-ways-to-utilize-user-generated-content-in-2019/#respondMon, 31 Dec 2018 23:06:29 +0000https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/7-ways-to-utilize-user-generated-content-in-2019/Read More]]> Running low on content ideas? User-generated content (UGC) is becoming a more and more popular means of filling company websites. When used correctly, it can actually end up adding a near endless, high-quality stream of relevant content for your business to use.

Of course, figuring out the right way to incorporate user-generated content into your site or blog can be a real challenge. It has to be done in a way that engages your audience while subtly marketing your business to the masses without feeling redundant, staged, or all over the place.

a near endless, high-quality stream of relevant content for your business

These ideas can help you think up some unique ways to utilize UGC in a way that works for your brand.

1. Make An Effort to Be Authentic

When encouraging your audience to produce content that markets your brand, the first step in achieving success is being authentic in your outreach and engagement.

Social media is by far one of the biggest sources of user-generated content, and authenticity is definitely lacking on many social channels. So, in an effort to truly touch your audience and foster the production of quality content related to your brand, you need to go the extra mile.

Interacting with your audience is the first step to incentivizing them to interact even more. This means liking their comments and responding to them. Next is discovering the content users are already creating that’s associated with your brand and leaving a like and comment to encourage them to make more.

For proof and inspiration, look to just about any strong brand and you’ll see this interaction. Brands behind popular YouTube channels are especially catching on to the importance of this engagement.

Brands ranging from SnowboardProCamp (under 350,000 subscribers) all the way up to channels like Good Mythical Morning (with over 14,000,000 subscribers) use the same practices of pinning, liking, and responding to positive comments.

Authenticity should be the foundation of your content marketing efforts. The goal is to make your brand “personable” and you have to establish that tone and connection before you can start explicitly asking users to generate content for you.

2. Reward Your Top Contributors

While you may not be stealing the attention of Instagram’s biggest influencers just yet, you will incentivize users to generate more content around your brand if you highlight the rewards they’ll receive in return.

you will incentivize users to generate more content around your brand if you highlight the rewards they’ll receive

Saying the best posts about your latest product will be featured on your page and, in general, just showing interaction with the content that users are taking the time to post about your brand will help you encourage future contributions.

Giveaways and hashtag competitions also go pretty far when it comes to encouraging more user-generated content, so don’t shy away from them. Plenty of successful examples of social media giveaways exist out there.

The photo contest run by Man of Steel is a great example, getting millions of people to submit pictures and vote on submissions for some excellent user-generated content. They picked one winner every week, which was just enough to keep things interesting while the whole contest proved extremely lucrative.

3. Create New Hashtags

The start of this method involves creating a unique, easy-to-remember hashtag for your brand that can be used all over. Encouraging its use can get people in on the conversation and help you track the content your users are generating with greater ease.

The next step is actually creating hashtags centered around specific events, like a workshop your business is running or a product launch that you’re working on building hype about.

Again, the reason to use hashtags is so that you can more easily track what users are saying and you can then engage with those who have joined the discussion, thus encouraging them to post even more content so more people can discover your brand or event.

Fitness guru Cassey Ho uses this method all the time on her Instagram, @Blogilates. From promoting her new app and exercise routines (#poppilates) to her exclusive line of activewear (#popflex), she has built an empire for herself since starting only a few years ago, now reaching millions every day.

4. Give Enthusiasts Early Access

When it comes to building hype for a new release, there is perhaps no better way to do it than to give your brand’s top ambassadors a sneak peek.

Not only will this give you a headstart with some positive feedback and perhaps even a testimonial that can be used for marketing, it will also allow first-hand use of the product to reach the masses before launch day.

This technique is employed by brands big and small, but game makers are particularly on top of this method, giving some key influencers in the gaming industry early access to new releases in order to spread the word and build excitement for them when they go on sale.

5. Incentivize Your Best Clients to Testify

Customer stories (which used to go by the boring name of “case studies”) are ultra-sharable and, luckily for you, oh-so-easy to create in today’s world of smartphones and social media.

Kajabi is one of the best examples by far of this method. Top users of the e-Course creation platform were given a super sharp, branded t-shirt and asked to get on video and explain how Kajabi has helped them.

The hashtag #KajabiHero accompanies story submissions and those that get featured have a real incentive: Kajabi will link back to the user’s own website, which helps to promote the e-Course they have created.

6. Create Customer-Centric Events

Whether online or offline, customer-centric events can help your brand take things to a new level. From a Twitter chat to an interactive webinar or even a promotion at a local tradeshow, these engaging events get customers to connect to your brand in a whole new way.

They also open the door to repurposing content, gathering feedback, and even creating a photo op that leads to additional UGC that your brand can utilize in more marketing efforts.

James Pollard from The Advisor Coach gives countless examples of how he runs customer appreciation events in the realm of financial advising, but any industry can benefit from a customer party that fosters engagement, loyalty, and ultimately leads to some fantastic promotional content.

7. Find New Ways to Collaborate

Looking to involve user-generated content more often? The possibilities are simply endless.

From asking for feedback and ideas to creating weekly round-up posts and digests, it’s easy to start taking advantage of the great things your users are already saying.

A couple prime examples to look to for inspiration include the gear manufacturer Burton, whose product pages feature pictures from real-world users, to the social media marketing platform Buffer, which is always featuring engaging (yet often random) photos from its own followers in a very effective manner.

]]>https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/7-ways-to-utilize-user-generated-content-in-2019/feed/0Popular Design News of the Week: December 17, 2018 – December 23, 2018https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/popular-design-news-of-the-week-december-17-2018-december-23-2018/
https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/popular-design-news-of-the-week-december-17-2018-december-23-2018/#respondMon, 31 Dec 2018 23:05:36 +0000https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/popular-design-news-of-the-week-december-17-2018-december-23-2018/Read More]]> Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.

The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.

Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that were posted, so don’t miss out and subscribe to our newsletter and follow the site daily for all the news.

10 Exciting Web Design Trends You Can’t Hide from in 2019

Inspirational Websites from 2018

You’ve Seen this Font Before, but You Probably Don’t Know its Name

Google Design’s Best of 2018

A CSS Venn Diagram

How to Improve UX of Web Forms

Millitext, a 1px Wide Font (LCD)

The 9 Big Design Trends of 2019

19 Typography Tips that will Change the Way You Design for the Mobile Web

Embracing Open Design in 2019

We Should Replace Facebook with Personal Websites

The Cost of Living in Mark Zuckerberg’s Internet Empire

Redesign, but Make it Satire

10 Diagrams to Help You Think Straight About UX Research

Design Debate: Should You Work In-House or Freelance?

Our Favorite UX Initiatives this Year

How to Delete Facebook Without Losing your Friends and Photos

My Struggle with Colors

Spotify.design

Design Handoff: 7 Things Must Known About Design Specs for Developers

The Real Reason Clients won’t Pay You to Design their Website

The End of the Ad-Supported Web

Building a “Choose your own Adventure”-Style Game Engine in 48 Hours

Everything I Learned in 10 Years of Blogging

Why so Many Brands on Instagram Look the Same

Want more? No problem! Keep track of top design news from around the web with Webdesigner News.

]]>https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/popular-design-news-of-the-week-december-17-2018-december-23-2018/feed/0The State of Web Design, December 2018https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/the-state-of-web-design-december-2018/
https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/the-state-of-web-design-december-2018/#respondMon, 31 Dec 2018 23:05:28 +0000https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/the-state-of-web-design-december-2018/Read More]]> Hey there, WDD Readers. Once more, I have spent a whole lot of my life online. My New Year’s resolution is to stay inside and keep doing that. I feel I shall probably succeed.

I have lived and breathed Internet stuff all year, and once again, I don’t even know how much I don’t know. The Internet holds untold numbers of secrets, most of them fairly dull, some of them delightful, and some of them are disgusting enough to inspire a certain awe and respect.

It’s a world unto itself. In my little corner of this world, I’ve once again noticed a few trends, and that’s what I’m here to write about today.

Aesthetic Fusion

Have you ever had Japanese food in Mexico? I’ve consulted with the experts (that is to say, actual Japanese people), and they’ll tell you that the Japanese food here is nothing at all like the real thing. Mexicans took Japanese food, and gave it their own spin, because apparently deep-fried sushi with some avocado in the middle sounded like a good idea to someone down here.

Heck, it sounds good to me. I love avocado as only a millennial raised in Mexico can.

Some people call this “fusion”—others have less complimentary names for it—and it’s happening in web design, too. Over the last couple of years, distinct design aesthetics burst onto the scene, and people went all out for brutalism, postmodernism, and more. Trends were popping up out of seemingly nowhere and taking on a life of their own, at speed.

This last year, though, it seems the emergence of distinct trends has slowed down. I’ve seen a lot more aesthetic fusion going on, with post-modern elements being mixed into fancy, elegant and serif-heavy designs, classical minimalism being given a hint of brutalism, and so on. It’s an interesting twist, and these fusions may eventually become aesthetic schools in their own right, one day. I’ll be watching with interest.

The Return of the “Business” Aesthetic

I’ve also noticed an upswing in the number of sites (including non-business sites) that look a bit… well… old. Not vintage or retro, but purposefully dated back to that era when almost every template was a “business” template.

Don’t get me wrong, these sites are built with things like Flexbox and CSS Grid, and they are clearly polished to a level consistent with everything we know about design now. But the bones of the design are old, maybe a little boring, and very business-friendly.

My theory is that after so much artsy design, some customers are asking their designers to go back to something a little more comfortable and familiar. It probably doesn’t help that many of the more experimental design trends can suffer in the usability and accessibility departments.

My prediction: This trend will continue, but only to a point. Some clients will be more concerned with standing out while other will just ask for something that works, and looks like something they expect of a professional business.

We’re Hardly Hearing About VR Anymore

VR is not dead, but we are hearing less and less about it, especially in regards to web design. Though it has been heralded as the next frontier for just about every kind of media, we’re seeing a general slowing of the industry. It is, for now, a niche.

the prophets of the past couple of years got their burning bushes a little too early

It’s not that the platform doesn’t have potential, it’s that the hardware is still prohibitive. It’s prohibitively expensive. It prohibits easily switching from VR to non-VR tasks. It’s nigh-impossible to use outside for a variety of reasons, where most people who aren’t us nerds spend a lot of time.

VR is coming, but the prophets of the past couple of years got their burning bushes a little too early, I think.

Front-end Code is More Developerized

Last year, I went over the battle being waged between groups I called the Experimentalists and the Standardistas. The Experimentalists are currently on a rising tide, buoyed by an influx of back end developers who are attempting to rewrite front end code in their image.

Seriously, the idea of CSS-in-JS used to be a joke, a subject of April Fool’s jokes and satirical articles. People aren’t joking about it so much anymore. The Standardista camp is blaming efforts to “developerize” front-end code on devs who never learned the original concepts and intent behind the way HTML is written, or things like the cascade.

the idea of CSS-in-JS used to be a joke, a subject of April Fool’s jokes and satirical articles

I think that’s more of a symptom than a cause, though. I blame the now nearly-constant demand for full-stack developers. While it’s certainly helpful to know a bit about how “the other side” works, there seems to be a rising aversion to specialization in the job market. As a generalist myself, I can understand that. But specialists exist for a simple reason: the Internet is too darned big for any one person to ever really be able to do it all on their own.

Content Gets Blocky

I’d be remiss, nay, downright negligent if I didn’t address this: While some CMS creators are focusing on simple, text/Markdown-only solutions (which absolutely have their place), web content in major CMS options seems to be going increasingly the way of LegoTM. It started with more limited CMS like Medium, and is being expanded upon in newer iterations, like WordPress’ Gutenberg.

Block-based content is that most elusive of solutions: a compromise. It combines some flexibility and choice on the part of the user with a degree of control for the designers and developers. It can’t stop bad decisions (few things can stop the really bad ones), but I believe with all my little designer heart that it’s the way forward.

]]>https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/the-state-of-web-design-december-2018/feed/0Quiz: Could You Become a Design Consultant in 2019?https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/quiz-could-you-become-a-design-consultant-in-2019/
https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/quiz-could-you-become-a-design-consultant-in-2019/#respondMon, 31 Dec 2018 23:05:23 +0000https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/quiz-could-you-become-a-design-consultant-in-2019/Read More]]> According to a recent QuickBooks survey, the #1 reason freelancers go into business for themselves is because it lends them the freedom to shape their own career path.

Whether you’ve done freelance web design work for a few months or a few years, there may come a time when you feel bored, unchallenged, or limited by it. When that happens, do you keep charging along because it’s what you originally set out to do? Or do you work on turning your career path into something that better aligns with your goals and job preferences?

One possible career pivot I want to present to you today is web consulting. Be sure to scroll down and take the quiz to see if this is a smart move for you!

Designer vs. Consultant: What’s the Difference?

A web designer or developer is someone who actually gets their hands dirty. They’re the ones who use coding and design skills to build a website from the ground up. Projects usually only last a couple months, unless maintenance services are offered afterwards.

A web consultant is an advisor for those in need of or who already have a website. They can provide a one-time assessment to clients or work as a dedicated advisor and guide.

Consultants specialize in the total landscape—from user persona research to optimization of a website and related marketing activities post-launch. As such, a web consultancy enables you to offer as little or as much as you’d like, unlike web design services which are a bit more rigid in nature.

In fact, selling consulting as an add-on to your web design plans could prove quite lucrative in and of itself. Not only would you become a total end-to-end provider of website services, but this would help you retain clients over longer periods of time.

Plus, as website builder tools grow more and more popular, you may find that many of the clients you would’ve easily sold design services to a year ago now confidently believe they can build a website on their own. And they have a point. Builders have greatly simplified the work that goes into creating professional-looking websites.

What these builders haven’t been able to do, though, is teach everyone how to choose the right color palette for accessibility or the right typeface for mobile users. Nor do page builders explain the importance of things like security and speed in the grand scheme of SEO. They may remove the need for someone to do hands-on work on a website (at least in your clients’ eyes), but they haven’t taught these DIY users the why of it all.

Take the Quiz: Are You a Designer or a Consultant?

I don’t mean to make this a completely black-or-white question. I believe that you can still build websites for a living while also providing occasional consulting to clients. Or vice versa. In fact, performing a mix of duties might be the perfect way to spice up your workday while bringing some much-needed stability to your income.

Use the following quiz to shed some light on whether or not website consulting is a viable path for you:

If you’re an implementer through-and-through, consulting isn’t a good choice for you.

If you’re not happy with the job anymore, it’s time to look at another career path, like consulting.

﻿

Consultants are inherently great at project management. If you don’t have the skills or interest, don’t go down that path.

Small business owners would appreciate the guidance, but won’t be able to afford your services. Enterprise-level companies will want the total package from you, so unless you have an agency, it may be best to hold off on approaching them.

If you’re not a people-person, consulting will be a very bad fit.

Consultants aren’t just people-persons. They’re also know-it-alls (but in the good sense).

Consultants are voracious learners. They have to be if they want to provide guidance that’s well-informed and valuable.

Unless you plan on providing one-off consulting services to clients, planning to consult, design, and develop by yourself just isn’t sustainable.

]]>https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/quiz-could-you-become-a-design-consultant-in-2019/feed/0How to Stop SEO Disasters During Website Migrationhttps://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/how-to-stop-seo-disasters-during-website-migration/
https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/how-to-stop-seo-disasters-during-website-migration/#respondMon, 31 Dec 2018 23:05:19 +0000https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/how-to-stop-seo-disasters-during-website-migration/Read More]]> After many weeks and months of preparations, you are ready to go; you’ve done everything that you needed to do to make sure that the design and development of the new site has been put together perfectly and you are happy to move forward.

So you press the launch button (because that’s how it works, right?), you sit back and congratulate yourself and your colleagues on relaunching the new website successfully…

…only to see the organic traffic has plummeted.

You look in fear, but then stop for a second because everyone knows that a site relaunch can sometimes cause an initial slump in organic traffic. You assume that it’s normal.

But after days, weeks and months, the traffic doesn’t recover, and panic sets in…

This is a potential reality for anyone who is relaunching a website. Amidst all the excitement with the new design and new features, not everyone thinks about the consequences that could happen if you don’t plan it effectively, especially from an SEO perspective.

In order to minimise any potential disasters, there’s a simple step-by-step process that you should follow in order to make sure that the periods before, during, and after the launch go smoothly and to better your long-term SEO strategy.

What to be Aware of Before Starting the Migration

Every migration is different, but there are some things that you need to be aware of before you even touch the website:

Work out your strategy – Do you need to do this? Why? What are you hoping to achieve? What are your objectives?

Who is going to be involved in this project? Get them involved as early as possible – whether you like it or not, you can’t do it alone. Make sure you talk to the relevant stakeholders to understand how it can impact them and how they can help to minimise disruptions. And the earlier they can be involved, the better.

Get professional SEO consultations to help you – much of the tasks listed below will involve someone with SEO expertise before, during and after the site has relaunched.

Get professional UX and CRO consultations to help you – you also need to follow the important elements of UX e.g. what kind of impacts certain design changes are going to have on user engagement and how it will affect conversion rates.

Looks aren’t everything – in the middle of all the excitement about building something visually stunning, make sure it doesn’t come at a usability or SEO cost. Sure, add a bit of flair and style to it, but don’t go over the top.

Get everyone to test – all the stakeholders should help with testing. This also applies if you have the development site already set up and are available to test.

Put time aside for fixing bugs and errors after launch – no, you can’t relax after you’ve done your bit

Site migration is not a solution for penalty – if you are suffering from any algorithmic penalties, it will not disappear during the migration. This will need to be fixed manually.

Never migrate your site during peak seasons – so if your busy period is Christmas, then don’t migrate the site between October and January

]]>https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/how-to-stop-seo-disasters-during-website-migration/feed/020 Hints That It’s Time to Take a Holidayhttps://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/20-hints-that-its-time-to-take-a-holiday/
https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/20-hints-that-its-time-to-take-a-holiday/#respondMon, 31 Dec 2018 23:05:13 +0000https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/20-hints-that-its-time-to-take-a-holiday/Read More]]> Everyone needs time off, and this is especially true for creative professions. The brain is like any other organ in your body: when it gets tired, it doesn’t work nearly as well. Keep going when your brain is tired, and it’ll start thinking daft thoughts like, “Maybe if I put some cocaine in my Adderall CoffeeTM, I can invent the next great framework after I finish up this site for my uncle’s business.”

Very rarely is anything of worth accomplished in that state of mind, and when it is, it’s an accident. You need rest. You need a long holiday, then a few days of vacation when you get back to recover from the holiday. Go. Do it. Doctor’s orders.

Here are a few handy clues to let you know when you absolutely need that rest:

When the kerning in a movie title ruins the rest of the movie for you.

When you ironically make the client’s logo take up half the page.

When you forget to be unironic, and submit that version of the design.

When the client signs off on it and says, “Good job! It’s like you read my mind!”

When you’ve slept on your keyboard often enough to figure out which bit of it is most comfortable, and leaves the most flattering indentations in your face.

When you’ve actually memorized all of Photoshop’s shortcuts. All of them.

When you find yourself making songs out of inspirational design quotes, e.g. “Keeeep iiit siiiimple, stuuupiiid…” [This is to be sung as a country song of some kind.]

When you actually sing those “songs” out loud…

…in front of people.

When you start coming up with your own inspirational design quotes because the ones you have just aren’t doing it anymore.

When you’d rather spend hours going through your inspiration collection than actually designing anything because actually designing a thing means making decisions and making deciSIONS MEANS YOU COULD FAIL AND OH MY GOD YOU’RE JUST NOT SURE YOU CAN HANDLE ANOTHER EMAIL FROM THE CLIENT ASKING FOR MORE REVISIONS YOU ONLY HAVE SO MANY IDEAS TO WORK WITH and how the hell do you just make something pop anyway?
Or maybe that’s just me.

When you find yourself looking for typographical ways to represent a small panic attack…and you succeed.

When you’ve run out of CSS/JS frameworks to try. Take fifteen minutes off and there’ll be another one along. Take a week off, and you’ll have plenty to do when you get back.

When you seriously consider just deleting all the HTML/CSS and starting over for the fourth time.

When you seriously consider bringing up file naming syntax in a meeting.

When you realize that no file should ever be labeled with the word “final”. That kind of growth as a person should be rewarded.

When you start to envy developers. Developers have to use math, and should never be envied.

When you start to speak aloud in ways reminiscent of your marketing copy, e.g. “Wanna go out with me? I’m a dating rockstar/ninja!”

When you see things misaligned in real life and think, “Who would just leave it like that? That’s 200 pixels off! What is that in ems, anyway?”

If you’re thinking of printing this article out and posting it in the office.

And finally…

Bonus round – here’s a classic: Any time someone says anything like “My nephew/daughter/middle school teacher could do that in PowerPoint for free.”

That’s right. By the power vested in me by absolutely no one, I declare that any designer who hears anything like that should get a week of vacation, no questions asked. I’m off for a few days. Don’t call me.

]]>https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/20-hints-that-its-time-to-take-a-holiday/feed/0Popular Design News of the Week: December 24, 2018 – December 30, 2018https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/popular-design-news-of-the-week-december-24-2018-december-30-2018/
https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/popular-design-news-of-the-week-december-24-2018-december-30-2018/#respondMon, 31 Dec 2018 23:04:39 +0000https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/popular-design-news-of-the-week-december-24-2018-december-30-2018/Read More]]> Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.

The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.

Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that were posted, so don’t miss out and subscribe to our newsletter and follow the site daily for all the news.

Six Tips to Build Better Design Systems

How to Quit Acting like an Amateur Designer

The Worst Design Crimes of 2018

Evolution of a Landing Page

Micro and Macro Typography in Web Design

Accessibility Guidelines for UX Designers

How to Get a Job at a Startup

20+ Creative Project Ideas to Get You Out of a Design Rut

Inspiration: Good Email Copy – Email Copy from Great Companies.

Designers Talk: How to Be Unique in 2019

“Should We even Be Here?”: Three Perspectives on Imposter Syndrome

Looking Ahead to 2019 – WordPress in the Year to Come

Quick and Simple Image Placeholders

The Dilemma of Designers’ Empathy Delusions

Designing your Site like it’s 1998

Awesome Demos from 2018

Learning Design from Musicians

Google Account on the Web Gets New Material Design Makeover

Building a Better Rate Display Page for Customers

Useful Collection of Sketch UI Freebies

The Best and Worst Identities of 2018, Part 2: The Best Reviewed

How to Deal with a Creative Meltdown

Why Design Systems Fail, and How to Make Them Work

How We Built the Figma Design Team

P.U.R.E -a User Research Analytical Method

Want more? No problem! Keep track of top design news from around the web with Webdesigner News.

]]>https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/popular-design-news-of-the-week-december-24-2018-december-30-2018/feed/019 Predictions for Design in 2019https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/19-predictions-for-design-in-2019/
https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/19-predictions-for-design-in-2019/#respondMon, 31 Dec 2018 23:04:28 +0000https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/19-predictions-for-design-in-2019/Read More]]> Happy New Year to one and all! At this time every year we like to publish our predictions of what the web industry will be up to over the coming twelve months. It also serves as a chance to reflect on where we’ve been.

This year, I’ve decided to be a little more ambitious and come up with the click-baitey total of 19 predictions for 2019 (that’s 13 more than last year). Consequently, some of the predictions may be less likely than others, but I stand by them all. Speaking of last year…

How Did I Do in 2018?

Skeuomorphism Strikes Back: I argued that skeuomorphism in UI design lends itself to affordances, and communicates function; consequently it would return in 2018. We may not be calling it skeuomorphism, but look around. I’ve scored myself a point for that one.

The Agonisingly Slow Demise of WordPress: I said that WordPress would decline, I hedged my bets by saying it would take more than a year, but that it’s a dated technology that’s not fit for purpose. And then along came Gutenberg. Nil points.

2018 Will be the Year of AR: Was this just wishful thinking? We all know how awesome—in the literal sense of the word—both VR and AR can be, but very little reality was augmented in 2018. Again, no points.

The End of Online Advertising: Last year I said that we’d see the end of online advertising; advertising doesn’t work, and alternate payment models are emerging. Granted, we still see adverts everywhere, but Medium’s clap-o-meter has not only sustained, but grown Medium; the Guardian’s voluntary contributions is now a proven model. I’m giving myself 0.5 points for that one.

Flamboyant, Responsive Lettering: I suggested that the design world’s love of lettering, coupled with what we’ve learned about SVG would lead to typographic beauty unlike anything we’ve seen. I’ve seen something approaching this a couple of times, but 99.99% of the web is using whatever geometric sans Google Fonts recommends. No points again.

We’ll Abandon AI in Favor of Craft: My long-standing skepticism over the viability of AI led me to suggest that we’d reject AI in favor of craft skill. Craft skill certainly influenced visual design, but AI is still the Holy Grail of 4/5 startups, so I’d be clutching at straws to score myself any points for that one.

19 Predictions for Design in 2019

So in my predictions for 2018 I scored a pathetic 1.5 out of a possible 6. Buy hey, that’s 25%, which means at least 4.75 of what follows are (probably) nailed-on certainties. Which ones will it be?

Prediction 1: Sound Input

2019 will be the year of voice input, that much seems certain; when Adobe XD starts offering voice prototyping you know the technology has arrived. But I’m going to go further and say that sound input—whether that be detecting a user’s environment, or reacting to audible taps (instead of a touch screen)—will explode in 2019.

Prediction 2: A Return to Difference

Branding is bland, websites are bland, typography is bland; Google looks like Tesla looks like Amazon looks like Arby’s looks like Adidas; no more. 2019 will be the year that business realises that long-term engagement requires a distinct brand identity.

Prediction 3: The End of Social Media, the Rise of Homepages

I’m not suggesting that Facebook will be a dim and distant memory by this time next year, what I am suggesting is that the increasing competency of site builders, and the increasing number of adults who grew up comfortable with the web, will mean more people choose to take control of their online content by building and hosting their own homepages.

Prediction 4: The End of the Grid

The grid as a tool for laying out elements is always going to be useful, but it’s unlikely to have the same self-referential cool that it had in 2018. After all, when the CSS Working Group finally gave us gradients the first thing we did was embrace flat design. They’ve given us CSS Grid, so that’s organic, gridless design for the next few years.

Prediction 5: More Unicorns

When I first started on the web, being able to design and code was the norm. Over the years, the increasing complexity of the two disciplines means that people have specialized in one or the other and the notion of doing both has been dismissed as fantasy. But here’s the thing: most of the time, taking a holistic approach produces better results, and younger designers are catching on.

Prediction 6: More Expressive Animation

Animation is everywhere, thanks largely to CSS. But the relatively few effects available to us, and the constraints of responsive design, mean that animation is often employed for its own sake. In 2019 designers will begin to push animation into new, more expressive directions.

Prediction 7: Ethical Design

It’s impossible to avoid our impact on the environment, and upon one another’s well-being. Ten years ago design was selfish, five years ago design was asking where it stood ethically, next year we’re going to start seeing the fruits of that debate, as designers apply ethics to their design process.

Prediction 8: Pseudo-VR

VR has captured our cultural imagination, but there are still substantial technical hurdles to overcome. Bridging the gap between our love for the technology and our ability to implement it will be pseudo-VR design elements; 3D environments—possibly even reactive 3D environments—that give us the impression of VR, without the need to don a helmet.

Prediction 9: Responsive Design 2.0

It’s been a while since we started thinking about different viewports. The last year or two has been quiet on that front. But responsive design was such a fundamental shift in attitude that it’s inconceivable that we’ve solved every issue; something new is just around the corner…perhaps even a solution for the hamburger menu conundrum.

Prediction 10: Clearly Defined Tribes

Human beings seem to need to form tribes, and web professionals are no different. You might be a Sketch devotee, or an XD aficionado, you might love WordPress, or prefer Shopify. The last few years have seen a huge growth in tools, the ones that survive will be the ones that complement each other; so much so that we’ll not be picking tools, but picking toolkits.

Prediction 11: Video Replaces Images

We’ve been posting huge bandwidth-busting images on our landing pages for years; we know it’s a terrible idea, we do it anyway. The natural conclusion of that trend is, far from reducing size, to add more, and the only realistic way of making our sites even slower is to swap out huge images for huge videos.

Prediction 12: Vue.js Takes Over

There’s a long-standing argument over which JavaScript framework is better: React or Angular. While acolytes of those two duke it out in blog comments, Vue.js has quietly been growing. Version 3.0 is expected in 2019, and if you haven’t checked it out already, this year’s the perfect time.

Prediction 13: The Resurgence of Analog

The biggest trend of the last few years has been the slow, steady move away from anything that looks too digital, in favor of design that looks constructed by human hands. Last year I called this craft, but I’m going to go “double or nothing” and say that in 2019, designers will be working on paper first, digital second.

Prediction 14: 3D Gradients

Gradients have been back in our toolkits for a while—for some of us, they never left—and 2019 will see a continuation of that trend. What will be new, is how gradients will be used: No longer a simple decorative element, gradients will be used to create the illusion of three dimensional space.

Prediction 15: Design Gets Redefined

Designers have (apparently) “won a seat at the table”. But there are a finite number of chairs, so handing one to designers means taking it from someone else. Consequently, we’re likely to see marketers begin describing themselves as “marketing designers”, PR professionals describing themselves as “relations designers”. Us? We’ll be recategorised as “visual designers”.

Prediction 16: Enabling Websites

Most of us would like to think that we design sites that enable positive user experiences, but more often than not clients brief designers to create sites that keep customers at arm’s reach. In 2019, sites that block users instead of enabling them will be outperformed by anyone that actively works to empower consumers.

Prediction 17: The Decline of Flat Illustration

Flat illustration—pioneered by brands like Atlassian, long before the trend emerged—has been popular for a while, frankly, because it’s so easy to do adequately (if not well). Like the fashion for bland sans-serifs that often accompanies this style, it’s a trend well past its use-by date.

Prediction 18: The Reinvention of Design Frameworks

It’s nigh-on impossible to keep reinventing the wheel; there’s only so many times that you can solve the same problem. From Material Design to Bootstrap to Foundation, things have been quiet on the design framework front recently. But the concept is sound, so expect a host of upgrades to be unleashed, sooner or later.

Prediction 19: EX Design

As always, UX will be at the heart of what we do in 2019, and as always someone will try and come up with a new term to redefine what we’ve all been doing for years. Last year was the year of the “Product Designer”, 2019 will be the year of the “Emotion Designer” (yeah, I know…).

Looking Forward to 2019

So, is the web the place you want to be for the next 12 months? Does it sound challenging? Fun? A little scary?

The one thing we can be sure of is that the web gets a little better every year: the tools we have to work with take away more of the grunt work and leave us to be creative, the code we produce gets cleaner and easier to maintain, good content is easier to find than spam, we’re actively engaged in making the web as inclusive as possible.

Trust me, this time next year you’ll be looking back and thinking that 2019 was one of the best years of your working life. So uncap yourself a fresh Sharpie, delete your unsorted bookmarks, clean your screen for the first and only time this year, and let’s get started.

]]>https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/31/19-predictions-for-design-in-2019/feed/0What Happened to Visual Composer? The Brain-Twisting Story of Our Confusing Name Changehttps://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/19/what-happened-to-visual-composer-the-brain-twisting-story-of-our-confusing-name-change/
https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/19/what-happened-to-visual-composer-the-brain-twisting-story-of-our-confusing-name-change/#respondWed, 19 Dec 2018 02:38:06 +0000https://sublimemedia.co.za/2018/12/19/what-happened-to-visual-composer-the-brain-twisting-story-of-our-confusing-name-change/Read More]]> If you’re familiar with Visual Composer, you may have witnessed a few big changes going on.

Is the Visual Composer Website Builder the same as the old Visual Composer? Is it a 2.0? Is WP Bakery a new product? Is it just rebranding (cause if it is, it’s a damn poor one)?

This confusion has upset many of our users, as well as our long-term partners.

And for good reasons.

What started as a minor problem quickly snowballed into a confusing mess that we did not handle right. Partly, because we got swallowed whole into the snowball and had to roll down with it. But also because we naively believed we could “fix it” (spoiler alert: we could not.)

So we decided to write this post for two big reasons.

First and foremost, we wanted to apologize for making an already messy situation worse. Ok, much worse.

We’re Deeply Sorry for the Confusion Created Around Visual Composer

And, most important, we’re sorry for not explaining what caused this mess from the very beginning.

Secondly, we wrote this post to finally explain what caused it from the very beginning.

As you’ll see, it’s quite a brain-twisting journey that led us onto this path. Things happened gradually, and the more we tried to “fix” problems along the way, the deeper they got.

Where It All Started: Changing the Name of Visual Composer Page Builder

You’ve probably seen that name dozens of times, on every major WP theme page. It was included as a premium plugin in many of your favorite themes.

So why would we decide all of the sudden to change the name our best-known product?

Short answer – we didn’t have a choice.

As for the long answer, you can watch the story unfold in the video or you can read it below.

This is a different tool from the Visual Composer Page Builder and we wanted to make that crystal clear to our users (clearly, that did NOT go according to plan).

The Page Builder was an Envato-exclusive product with lifetime license (like all products sold with Envato).

The Website Builder, our new product, was meant to go in a different direction.

We tried to move away from the lifetime license model, because our new product was more complex in features, and built for a growing part of our users whose website building needs have rapidly evolved.

All this and the new React.JS technical stack meant much higher development costs that could only be sustained with a yearly license model.

We also wanted to be directly in touch with our users to offer them stronger, faster support.

But what happened next was anything but what we had planned:

We Missed One Key Detail That Forced Us Into a Difficult Decision

And that “detail” was our contractual limitations with Envato. In short, we couldn’t sell another product under the name of Visual Composer outside their platform.

So we had to choose between 2 options:

1. We tone down our new product to fit the lifetime license model and put it up on the marketplace, or…

2. We change the name of the product we already had on Envato, Visual Composer Page Builder, so we could lift our contractual limitations.

So we thought long and hard about this, and eventually decided to change the name of the Visual Composer Page Builder, the plugin we had on the marketplace, to WP Bakery.

It was a tough decision, but it was the only way we could maintain the quality of our new product.

And That’s How the Visual Composer Page Builder Became WP Bakery

At this point, we were swamped with work on our new product and overwhelmed with all the unplanned changes.

We were in the eye of the storm and couldn’t see the big picture:

The massive confusion we had created for Visual Composer users.

People were not only confused about the name change from Visual Composer Page Builder to WP Bakery.

But they were completely puzzled about our new product, Visual Composer Website Builder.

They didn’t understand whether this was a rebranding of the old Page Builder or a totally new product.

And it’s 120% our fault.

That’s why we decided to walk you through the whole journey, in an effort to make things as clear as possible.

What is Visual Composer Website Builder and What Does it Do?

You have a free version and a Premium version with extra features (and more to be added next year).

There are hundreds of ready-to-use content elements to choose from, so you’ve got extra freedom to implement your vision.

You can play around with the drag-and-drop block and see your changes instantly (no more time wasted going back and forth).

You can use Visual Composer Website Builder with any theme, which means you can integrate it into your existing themes.

You can also choose from a handful of ready-to-use WordPress templates for different types of pages (landing pages, portfolios, corporate websites, product pages and many more).

We’ve set up two types of page editing: frontend editor and tree view. If you use the tree view, you’ll be able to navigate through the elements available on a page which speeds up the process.

A big plus: there’s a header, footer, and sidebar editor available in the Premium version of the product. You’ll also have access to a wide variety of add-ons (you can get them from the Visual Composer’s dedicated Hub or get them from third-party developers).

So What Exactly Are the Differences Between Visual Composer Website Builder and WP Bakery?

We got this question a lot lately, so I’d like to take an extra minute to explain these differences here.

First of all, Visual Composer Website Builder is not the ‘premium’ version of WPBakery. It is a completely different product that incorporates the feedback we received from users in the past few years.

We wanted to help them achieve more with one single product, so we created the new product as a platform that can easily be extended according to the users’ needs and desires.

Visual Composer Website Builder’s code was built from zero with React.Js. It doesn’t use any of the WordPress shortcodes. This helps to achieve better performance.